Swedish Governors-General

A Governor-General, or generalguvernör, was appointed by the Swedish monarch as his permanent representative, with both civil and military jurisdiction, over parts of Sweden, from the 17th century to the early 19th century, when constitutional changes made the office obsolete. A Governor-General was always appointed as the highest representative of the Swedish monarch in the Dominions ruled, or the Possessions governed, by Sweden. Conquered, and unintegrated, territories were apart from this, more or less allowed to retain their internal political structure.

The term viceroy is better reserved for the Stattholder, the representative of the Swedish Monarch in Norway when that neighboring country was in personal union with Sweden, as it concerns a whole kingdom, and notably in the several cases where the incumbent was no lesser than the Swedish Crown prince.

Governors-General could also be appointed over parts of Sweden proper, today's Sweden and Finland, and usually consisting of several counties in that part of the country, when circumstances so required. When this happened the Royal Governor of each county would report to the Governor-General instead of directly to the Monarch or the Privy Council. A Royal Governor, regardless if whether under a Governor-General or not, held the civil, but not the military, jurisdiction over his county. The Governors-General were always members of the Privy Council.

The list of Governors-General is not complete. Some of the listed held the title Governor, not Governor-General.

The Scanian Dominion (Skånska Generalguvernementet in Swedish), was established after the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 and initially included all of Skåneland. In 1660, Bornholm was returned to Denmark. Blekinge, which had been part of Kristianstad County while under the dominion, was removed in 1680 and placed under Kalmar County. The dominion was suspended in 1670, but recreated during the Scanian War. In 1675, Bohus County was added and it remained administered by the Scanian Governors-General until 1693. Halland County was removed from the dominion in 1693 and for the periods 1693–1719 and 1801–1809, the dominion included the counties in the province of Scania only.[1]